Sometimes a whole week goes by without hearing a peep from any of the Mayoral candidates. They are probably somewhere in London chuntering around looking for feral children to scold or non-feral children to kiss, but never-the-less at this stage of the election the general public can generally go about its business without being molested by sound bites or fantasy promises.
Occasionally the Mayor will pop up and shout “I want to build an airport on top of all these unexploded bombs!” but apart from these odd interludes they’ve kept the media horses in the stables over winter ready for the race in May.
This week has been a little different though with two of the Mayoral candidates getting a little over excited.
Let’s start with Mr Livingstone.
Now, anyone who thinks our Ken is a homophobe is surely severely disorientated. However, he has managed the interesting feat of being hated by the right for both being too pro-gay and making an off-key remark about the Conservative Party being “riddled” with gay people.
His clumsy remarks have left him open to all kinds of silly accusations that I’m sure many Labour activists could do without. Ken reportedly told the New Statesman that “As soon as Blair got in, if you came out as lesbian or gay you immediately got a job. It was wonderful… you just knew the Tory party was riddled with it like everywhere else is.”
A very poor choice of words, which won’t win him any friends, but let’s not pretend it means something it does not.
Disappointingly, Livingstone does seem to indulge in an uncharacteristic attack on Boris’ personal morals saying that both he and Boris “have five [children]. I can admit to all mine.” Not massively cool Kenneth.
Particularly uncool as he then follows the remark with “[The public] should be allowed to know everything, except the nature of private relationships – unless there is hypocrisy”. Is Mayor Johnson particularly known for his views on the family? Hardly. Then even by his own standards Ken just over stepped the line on this, if not the whole “riddled” thing.
And then we come to Brian Paddick
The Liberal Democratic Mayoral candidate wrote a reasoned piece in The Guardian this week on where London’s policing is going. His dramatic statement that “Unless drastic changes are made, routine policing, not just during riots, will have to be carried out by force, by a significantly larger number of police officers” has sadly received little attention.
The piece highlights the uneven way ethnic minorities are treated by the police and concerns around deaths in custody or at police hands. All useful stuff that we should be debating.
However, Darryl over at Snipe has pointed out Paddick’s concern with policing may be eclipsing other issues. Responding to Johnson’s desire to take more control of the rail he said that “Londoners consistently rate crime and policing as the most important issues in this election – not transport.”
It is extremely strange to play the issues off against each other in this way. It’s not as if the Mayor is only allowed one subject they are permitted to care about. In fact, considering the Mayor has a lot more power over transport issues than policing for Paddick to imply transport is a non-issue does not bode well for the rest of his campaign.
As Darryl says “To mock this big issue as mere “talking about trains” won’t lift Brian’s low profile in the minds of Londoners who struggle daily to use those trains.”
Tomorrow is budget day in the Assembly so Mayor Johnson has a public opportunity to get one or both feet in his mouth well before the weekend to join Brian and Ken, but will he be so public spirited? While Johnson’s campaign managed to muck up their election literature (see the Londonist) this doesn’t really cut it as we all know Johnson has it in him for a really top quality gaffe every time he opens his mouth.
We shall be waiting!
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